PRO FOOTBALL

PRO FOOTBALL;N.F.L. Gives Modell a Ticket to Baltimore

By RICHARD SANDOMIR

Published: February 10, 1996

CHICAGO, Feb. 9—
Where've you guys been for the past three months?" Art Modell asked reporters today, in his first public appearance since November, following the National Football League owners' decision to let the team formerly known as the Cleveland Browns move to Baltimore. "It's good to be back."

The team's relocation, which goes into effect immediately, plus the N.F.L.'s promise to provide Cleveland with a new team called the Browns by 1999, was approved by 25 owners, 2 more than the required three-quarters majority of the 30 teams. Pittsburgh and Buffalo voted against the deal, while Oakland, St. Louis and Arizona abstained.

It was a necessary evil," said Roger Headrick, president of the Minnesota Vikings.

Lamar Hunt, the Kansas City Chiefs' owner, added, "I was not in favor of the move, but I was in favor of the ultimate resolution."

Paul Tagliabue, the N.F.L. commissioner, called the deal "the end of a very emotional and difficult time."

"To the fans of the Browns, you can count on us that the Browns will be there in 1999," he said.

The deal nearly collapsed on Tuesday with Modell's resistance to paying Cleveland any more than $2.5 million in damages from lost rent, taxes and other revenue. "We had to be made whole," said Fred Nance, a lawyer for the city of Cleveland.

"I never thought it would get done," said Robert Weber, Modell's lawyer. "I wasn't impressed with the city's recognition of modern-day sports economics."

At his coming out, after a torrent of vitriol and numerous death threats sent him into exile in Palm Beach, Fla., Modell expressed a mixture of relief at the resolution and a continued belief that Cleveland's politicians failed him.

"I wouldn't do anything differently," he said. "I'm proud that I showed as much patience as I have."

Citing the city's financial commitments to build Jacobs Field, the Gund Arena and the Rock-and-Roll Hall of Fame, he said, "I wanted and was promised equal treatment and it wasn't forthcoming." He flayed the news media and politicians who "fed the passions of hate" against him.

Cleveland Mayor Michael R. White, a leader in the fight to keep the Browns in Cleveland, said: "What has been done has been done and has been rectified. We have received redress. It's time to look to a new day."

Modell said he did not expect the enormous outcry that followed the announcement that he would move.

"I didn't expect the outrage," he said. "I kid Bud Adams" -- the owner of the N.F.L.'s Houston team, who is moving his franchise to Nashville -- "that he had 65 people protesting the Oilers' move, and 30 were relatives looking for money."

Asked when moving vans would pack up the team's belongings for the trip to Baltimore, Modell said, "When they come back from L.A.," a reference to the Seattle Seahawks' proposed move to Southern California.

The league's nine-page agreement with Cleveland sets precedents that may have to be repeated as more N.F.L. teams seek their fortunes in other cities.

The league has agreed to borrow from $28 million to $48 million to help pay for construction of a 72,000-seat, natural-turf stadium in Cleveland, which an expansion or relocated team will make its home. The owner of a new Cleveland team will repay the loan with interest. The league has agreed to make "every effort" to tell Cleveland if it intends to expand there by Nov. 15, 1997.

"If you do it for the Browns, why don't you do it for the Seahawks?" said Marc Ganis, president of Sportscorp., a Chicago consulting firm. "What's interesting is the backfill. Do you put a team back into Houston after they move? Or Tampa Bay? Or Seattle?"

In Houston, the Oilers have a deal to move to a Nashville stadium in time for the 1998 season. Asked if the N.F.L. would lend money to help build a new stadium in Houston and guarantee a replacement team, Tagliabue said: "We'd consider it. The question is, are people prepared to do what Cleveland has done, to come through with funding and turn a renovation plan into a new stadium?"

Regarding Seattle, Tagliabue sounded bothered about the Seahawks' owner Kenneth Behring's abrupt decision, which violated a league resolution that Behring signed last year giving the N.F.L. control of the Southern California market.

"It's a serious concern on my part and by ownerships, picking up and moving their practice facility to Southern California," he said. "The Seahawks are the N.F.L. team in the Pacific Northwest. Practicing in Southern California doesn't go far in representing us in the Pacific Northwest."

Al Davis, the Raiders' president of the general partner, said the resolution was illegal "and I don't know if you are allowed to appropriate a market for yourself." Later, he said his team still controls that market.

Davis called the Cleveland deal "selective, discriminatory."

"Someone has got to pay for it," he said.

He said Cleveland did not meet the league's relocation guidelines, which Modell championed and used to argue against Raiders' moves around California. He said today's meeting grew contentious when he raised his objections. Tagliabue said Modell's petition to move "did not meet all the guidelines," but the deal with Cleveland overcame those problems.

Modell will pay the league a $29 million relocation fee -- paid for by the Maryland Stadium Authority's sale of $80 million in permanent seat licenses, or upfront payments to buy season tickets -- and forgo some future expansion fees.

Is it fair, Modell was asked, that his actions deprive Cleveland of N.F.L. action for three years?

"It's not the end of the world," he said. "Baltimore waited for 13 years."

EXTRA POINT

In other business Friday, the N.F.L. owners approved extension of the collective bargaining agreement through 2002. It moves the uncapped year from 1999 to 2000 in time for the free-agent signing period, which begins Thursday.